Oceanfront : cliff house
dimanche 31 août 2008
samedi 30 août 2008
vendredi 29 août 2008
Oceanfront : cliff house
Oceanfront : cliff house
Cliff House has had five major incarnations since its beginnings in 1858. That year, Samuel Brannan, a prosperous ex-Mormon elder from Maine, bought for $1,500 the lumber salvaged from a ship that foundered on the basalt cliffs below. With this material he built the first Cliff House. The second Cliff house was built for Captain Junius G. Foster, but it was a long trek from the city and hosted mostly horseback riders, small game hunters or picnickers on day outings. With the opening of the Point Lobos toll road a year later, the Cliff House became successful with the Carriage trade for Sunday travel. The builders of the toll road constructed a two mile speedway beside it where well-to-do San Franciscans raced their horses along the way. On weekends, there was little room at the Cliff House hitching racks for tethering the horses for the thousands of rigs. Soon, omnibus railways and streetcar lines made it to near Lone Mountain where passengers transferred to stagecoach lines to the beach. The growth of Golden Gate Park attracted beach travelers in search of meals and a look at the Sea Lions sunning themselves on Seal Rock, just off the cliffs to visit the area.
In 1877, the toll road, now Geary Boulevard, was purchased by the City for around $25,000. In 1883, after a few years of downturn, the Cliff House was bought by Adolph Sutro who had solved the problems of ventilating and draining the mines of the Comstock Lode and become a multimillionaire. After a few years of quiet management by J.M. Wilkens, the Cliff House was severely damaged by an explosion of the schooner, Parallel, that went aground under the reasons of dynamite. The blast was heard a hundred miles away and demolished the entire north wing of the tavern. Seven years later, on Christmas 1894 the patched and repaired old building burned down. Wilkens was unable to save the guest register, which included the signatures of three Presidents and dozens of illustrious world-famous visitors.
In 1896, Adolph Sutro built a new Cliff House, a seven story Victorian Chateau, called by some "the Gingerbread Palace", below his estate on the bluffs of Sutro Heights. This was the same year work began on the famous Sutro Baths, which included six of the largest indoor swimming pools north of the Restaurant that included a museum, skating rink and other pleasure grounds. Great throngs of San Franciscans arrived on steam trains, bicycles, carts and horse wagons on Sunday excursions.
The Cliff House and Sutro Baths survived the 1906 earthquake with little damage but burned to the ground on the evening of September 7, 1907. Rebuilding of the restaurant was completed within two years and, with additions and modern restorations, is the one seen today.
Cliff House in background, past Sutro Bath Ruins, 2008.
The building was acquired by the National Park Service in 1977 and it became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The site overlooks the Seal Rock and the former site of the Sutro Baths. More than thirty ships have been pounded to pieces on the southern shore of the Golden Gate below the Cliff House.
(w) Wikipedia
jeudi 28 août 2008
Oceanfront : cliff house
Oceanfront : cliff house
The Cliff House is a restaurant perched on the headlands on the cliffs just north of Ocean Beach on the western side of San Francisco, California. It overlooks the site of the former Sutro Baths and is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, operated by the National Park Service.
(c) Wikipedia
mercredi 27 août 2008
mardi 26 août 2008
lundi 25 août 2008
dimanche 24 août 2008
samedi 23 août 2008
vendredi 22 août 2008
jeudi 21 août 2008
mercredi 20 août 2008
Castro District : Castro Street - 24th street
Castro District : castro str -24th Sttr
Castro Street was named for José Castro (1808–1860), a leader of Mexican opposition to U.S. rule in California in the 19th century, and governor of Alta California from 1835-1836. The neighborhood now known as the Castro was born in 1887 when the Market Street Cable Railway built a line linking Eureka Valley to downtown.
From 1910 to 1920, the Castro was known as "Little Scandinavia" on account of the number of people of Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish ancestry who lived there. A Finnish bathhouse (Finilla's) dating from this period was located behind the Cafe Flore on Market Street until 1986. The Cove on Castro diner used to be called The Norse Cove. The Scandinavian Seamen's Union was near 15th Street and Market, just around the corner from the Swedish-American Hall which remains in the district. Scandinavian-style "half-timber" construction can still be seen in some of the buildings along Market Street between Castro and Church Streets.
The Castro became a working-class Irish neighborhood in the 1930s and remained so until the mid-1960s.
According to Morgan Spurlock, who filmed "Straight Man in a Gay World", a 2005 episode of his documentary TV series 30 Days in the Castro, the U.S. military offloaded thousands of gay servicemen in San Francisco during World War II after they were discharged for being homosexuals. Many settled in the Castro, and this began the influx of homosexuals to the Castro neighborhood.
The Castro came of age as a gay center following the controversial Summer of Love in the neighboring Haight-Ashbury district in 1967. The gathering brought tens of thousands of middle-class youth from all over the United States. The neighborhood, previously known as Eureka Valley, became known as the Castro, after the landmark theatre by that name near the corner of Castro and Market Streets.
By 1975, Harvey Milk had opened a camera store there, and began political involvement as a gay activist, further contributing to the notion of the Castro as a gay destination. Some of the culture of the late 1970s included what was termed the "Castro Clone," a mode of dress and personal grooming -- tight denim pants, black combat boots, tight T-shirt, possibly a red plaid flannel outer shirt, and usually sporting a mustache or full beard -- in vogue with the gay male population at the time, and which gave rise to the nickname "Clone Canyon" for the stretch of Castro Street between 18th and Market Streets. There were numerous famous watering holes in the area, contributing to the nightlife, including the Corner Grocery Bar, the Norse Cove, the Pendulum, the Midnight Sun, Twin Peaks, and the Elephant Walk. A typical daytime street scene of the period is perhaps best illustrated by mentioning the male belly dancers who could be found holding forth in good weather at the corner of 18th and Castro, on "Hibernia Beach," in front of the financial institution from which it drew its name. Then at night, after the bars closed at 2 AM, the men remaining at that hour often would line up along the sidewalk of 18th Street to indicate that they were still available to go home with someone.
The area was hit hard by the AIDS/HIV crisis of the 1980s. Beginning in 1984, city officials began a crackdown on bathhouses and launched initiatives that aimed to prevent the spread of AIDS. Kiosks lining Market Street and Castro Street now have posters promoting safe sex and testing right alongside those advertising online dating services.
Straight families are moving into the Castro at an accelerating pace
(c) Wikipedia
mardi 19 août 2008
Castro District : castro str -24th Sttr
Castro District : castro str -24th Sttr
San Francisco's gay village is most concentrated in the business district that is located on Castro Street from Market Street to 19th Street. It extends down Market Street toward Church and on both sides of the Castro neighborhood from Church Street to Eureka Street. Although the greater gay community was, and is, concentrated in the Castro many gay people live in the surrounding residential areas bordered by the Mission District, Noe Valley, Twin Peaks, and Haight-Ashbury neighborhoods. Some consider it to include Duboce Triangle and Dolores Heights which both have a strong LGBT presence.
Castro Street itself runs south through Noe Valley, crossing the 24th Street business district, and terminating a few blocks farther south as it moves toward the Glen Park neighborhood.
(c) Wikipedia
lundi 18 août 2008
San Francisco : San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art
5. San Francisco : San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art
dimanche 17 août 2008
San Francisco : San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art
4. San Francisco : San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art
samedi 16 août 2008
San Francisco : San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art
3. San Francisco : San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art
vendredi 15 août 2008
San Francisco : San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art
2. San Francisco : San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art
jeudi 14 août 2008
San Francisco : San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art
San Francisco : San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a major modern art museum and San Francisco landmark.
It opened in 1935 under founding director Dr. Grace Morley (Grace L. McCann Morley, Director from 1935–1958) as the San Francisco Museum of Art, the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art. For its first sixty years, the museum occupied upper floors of the War Memorial Veterans Building in the Civic Center. Under director Henry T. Hopkins (1974–1986) the museum added "Modern" to its title in 1975, and established an international reputation.
In a major transformation and expansion, in 1995 the museum moved to its current location, 151 Third Street, adjacent to Yerba Buena Gardens in the SOMA district and its iconic architectural showpiece facility designed by Mario Botta. Inviting comparison to the preeminent MOMA in New York City, the museum re-branded itself "SFMOMA".
In 2008, the museum began construction on a Rooftop Garden, adding 14,400 square feet. The outdoor garden is designed to be a gallery without a ceiling and is expected to open in Spring of 2009. Annually, the museum hosts more than twenty exhibitions and over three hundred educational programs.
The museum has in its collection important works by Jackson Pollock, Richard Diebenkorn, Paul Klee, Marcel Duchamp and Ansel Adams, among others. The famous cinema series Art in Cinema was started at SFMOMA in 1946 by filmmaker Frank Stauffacher.
Recently, the museum has undergone changes in their web presence, adding a blog where visitors and staff can discuss the goings on at the museum or art in general. Also available on-line is a digital library so that the permanent collection can be accessed and seen from anywhere in the world.
The St. Regis Museum Tower, W Hotel San Francisco and the PacBell Building rise right next to the museum.
(c) Wikipedia
mercredi 13 août 2008
San Francisco : Golden Gate Park : Victorian Conservatory of Flowers
f. San Francisco : Golden Gate Park : Victorian Conservatory of Flowers
mardi 12 août 2008
San Francisco : Golden Gate Park : Victorian Conservatory of Flowers
e. San Francisco : Golden Gate Park : Victorian Conservatory of Flowers
lundi 11 août 2008
San Francisco : Golden Gate Park : Victorian Conservatory of Flowers
d. San Francisco : Golden Gate Park : Victorian Conservatory of Flowers
dimanche 10 août 2008
San Francisco : Golden Gate Park : Victorian Conservatory of Flowers
c. San Francisco : Golden Gate Park : Victorian Conservatory of Flowers
samedi 9 août 2008
San Francisco : Golden Gate Park : Victorian Conservatory of Flowers
b. San Francisco : Golden Gate Park : Victorian Conservatory of Flowers
vendredi 8 août 2008
San Francisco : Golden Gate Park : Victorian Conservatory of Flowers
a. San Francisco : Golden Gate Park : Victorian Conservatory of Flowers
The Conservatory of Flowers is an elaborate Victorian greenhouse with a central dome rising nearly 60 feet high and arch-shaped wings extending from it for an overall length of 240 feet. It sits atop a gentle slope overlooking Conservatory Valley. The structural members are articulated through one predominant form, a four-centered or Tudor arch.
The Conservatory of Flowers consists of a wood structural skeleton with glass walls set on a raised masonry foundation. The entire structure has a shallow E-shaped plan that is oriented along an east-west axis. The central 60-foot high pavilion is entered through a one-story, glassed-in vestibule with a gable roof on the south side of the pavilion. Flanking the rotunda to the east and west are one-story, symmetrical wings framed by wood arches. Each wing is L-shaped in plan, with cupolas adorning the intersection of the two segments.
The octagonal pavilion supports an arched roof that is, in turn, surmounted by a clerestory and dome. The clerestory is supported by eight, free-standing, wood-clad, cast iron columns located within the rotunda and grouped in pairs. Projecting from the pavilion roof on the east, west, and south elevations are dormer windows with peak roofs. Between major arched structural framing members are wood muntins that hold the glass lights on their sides. The lights are lapped one over one another like shingles and follow the curve of the arches.
The construction of each arch is aesthetically appealing in its simplicity, but also structurally clever in that it takes maximum advantage of wood as a building material while overcoming its inherent structural shortcomings. From a structural perspective, the arch design utilizes the mechanical properties of the material. Wood is strongest along the length of the grain and weakest along the end grain. The use of short arch components with shallow radii minimized the amount of weaker end grain exposed to structural forces. The assembly of the arch with several small pieces of wood, the shapes of which are identical from arch to arch, is efficient. It allowed the fabricator to set the machines with guides and templates so that cutting the multiple-arch components was a simple task. Furthermore, the design required little material since each individual arch component has only a shallow radius. Moreover, by using relatively narrow widths of lumber, the chance of warping was minimized. Finally, there was an efficiency realized in transportation, as the small size of the arch components allowed them to be easily stored and shipped.
The structural wood arches and their method of construction, along with the decorative woodwork and unique lapped glazing, define the character of the Conservatory of Flowers. The major character-defining elements associated with the Conservatory of Flowers consist of ornamental and structural woodwork, including the method of fabrication used for the arches, the lapped glazing system, the ventilation system, and the building’s siting and exterior landscaping
(c) Wikipedia
jeudi 7 août 2008
San Francisco : Golden Gate Park : Victorian Conservatory of Flowers
San Francisco : Golden Gate Park : Victorian Conservatory of Flowers
The Conservatory of Flowers is a large botanical greenhouse in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, constructed in 1878. It houses an important collection of exotic plants. It is the oldest building in Golden Gate Park and the oldest municipal wooden conservatory remaining in the United States. It is also one of the first municipal conservatories constructed in the country. For these distinctions and for its associated historical, architectural, and engineering merits, the Conservatory of Flowers is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the California Register of Historic Places, is a San Francisco Landmark, and is a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
(c) Wikipedia
mercredi 6 août 2008
mardi 5 août 2008
lundi 4 août 2008
dimanche 3 août 2008
samedi 2 août 2008
vendredi 1 août 2008
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